By Rosalia Kapiri

Mchinji, May 2, Mana: The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) on Friday concluded the final phase of its Lean Season Response maize distribution in Mchinji District, marking the end of a nationwide effort that has reached 5.7 million people since September 2024.

The final distribution exercise took place at Gandali Full Primary School ground in Traditional Authority (TA) Dambe’s area, where households impacted by El Niño-related food shortages received relief maize.

DoDMA’s Director of Preparedness and Response, Moses Chimphepo, commended the community’s resilience and stressed responsible food use.

“We all know about the El Niño which affected crops in the country. Government mobilized resources to help people for four months. We are now distributing the last phase,” he said.

Chimphepo emphasized the maize was strictly for consumption: “This is not for sale. It is to help food security in your household. The maize you harvest should be stored and used wisely, not wasted or sold.”

The initiative, supported by the World Bank and implemented through the World Food Programme (WFP), was carried out in 21 districts.

Chimphepo noted that government managed to mobilize over 87% of the needed resources.

“In some districts, we distributed three or four times, but everyone received at least twice. So far, so good. The challenge is big, but we’ve done a tremendous job,” he said.

Chimphepo encouraged communities to embrace food budgeting: “The harvest should be properly stored and rationed. Sometimes people sell all their produce and later need support again. It’s a shared responsibility between government and citizens.”

Beneficiaries expressed gratitude for the support. Dorothy John, 34, from Chimwala Village, thanked “government for bailing us out from hunger. We didn’t expect this, but we are grateful.”

Senior Group Chimwala also praised the programme, saying: “People had nowhere to turn to. With this support, people are now happy. I urge my people not to sell the maize.”

With the relief programme coming to an end as the harvest season begins, authorities hope the food security lessons learned will carry communities forward into a more stable and self-reliant future.

By Memory Khutuliwa

Blantyre, May 2, Mana: Blantyre District Youth Office (BDYO) has generated Risk Assessment Vulnerability tool to assess adolescent girls and young women’s (AGYW) mental and reproductive health and to track gender-based violence, HIV and Aids, drug and alcohol abuse, and school dropout.

Blantyre District Youth Officer Peter Mizedya said the tool is meant to deal with issues affecting the AGYW from the age 10 to 24, saying after assessment they will be referred to different institutions for attention.

“This tool helps to detect issues in a fast way at community level since we use peer educators that we trained. We expect to reach the whole district in the next 12 months,” he added.

On GBV, Mizedya said his office refers victims to police stations, community victim support units, education institutions and social workers in their respective communities for psychosocial support and other forms of assistance

“This initiative is really helping; we have seen girls being supported. This has also seen an improvement of uptake of services in health institution more especially in Youth Friendly Services,” he added and expressed hope the tool will offer more improvement on issues that affect the AGYWs.

Community Policing Coordinator for Milare Police Sub Station in Blantyre, Sub-Inspector Harry Makumbi, said there are rising cases of GBV only that some of them are not reported to police.

Makumbi said community members need to be sensitized on how, when and where to report GBV cases.

“Since the tool came into being, we have recoded one case of GBV. This tool will help to encourage GBV victims to report to police,” he added.

Makumbi said that Risk Assessment Vulnerability Tool will bring a greater impact to the AGYWs, observing that peer educators in youth clubs will also use the tool to identify, analyse, evaluate problems the AGYWs face in their respective communities to mitigate further consequences.

The District Youth Office in Chiradzulu used the tool to assess 4,178 AGYWs in Machinjiri and Mpemba where some AGYWs were referred to various institutions for further attention while some opted to go back to school to continue with education.

By Pempho Kantayeni

Lilongwe, May 2, Mana: Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has developed a draft framework for data protection registration regulation, which will require data controllers and processors to register with the authority at a fee. 

Speaking on Friday in Lilongwe during a validation workshop with various stakeholders, Head of Data Protection, Daniel Chiwoni, disclosed that the purpose of the workshop is to engage with stakeholders on developing a framework to support the Data Protection Act by providing detailed processes on how MACRA will regulate the processing of personal data in the country.

"So we have developed, for now, two sets of regulations; the first one being the data protection registration regulations. Under the Data Protection Act, there is a requirement that those that are processing vast amounts of data, we call them data controllers and data processors of significant importance, should register with the with the MACRA," he said.

Chiwoni emphasised that the regulations will outline the information to be

submitted during the registration process and the fees to be paid.

He added that the framework will specify when the registration process is complete and how the authority will communicate to the registrants.

Chiwoni highlighted that Data Protection Handling Regulations will address the complaints from data subjects affected by processing activities by providing a process for handling complaints lodged with the data protection authority.

"The framework will specify the period within which a company must respond to a complaint and the steps to be taken afterward," he said.

One of the participants, for Youth Intiative Executive Director Precious Phiri, said that the new regulations and protocols will help in safeguarding data and privacy in the country.

"The workshop will help us to actually safeguard the data and the privacy for almost everybody in Malawi, so what we're trying to do is to safeguard these by putting protocols so that people should be safeguarded, whereby people cannot hack and issues of identity theft should not happen," he said.

The regulations aim to streamline the registration process and ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.

In order to ensure that data subjects rights are protected, MACRA has also developed the Data Protection Complaints Handling Regulations draft.

By George Mponda

Karonga, May 2, Mana: Bishop Martin Anwel Mtumbuka of the Karonga Diocese has announced that proceeds from the newly launched St Denis Primary School will be utilized to rehabilitate rural primary schools.

The school, located at Karonga Boma, has been constructed with funds from Steven Peck through the Cross Catholic Outreach and it is offering classes from Standards One to Six.

Speaking at the launch on Thursday, Bishop Mtumbuka said the school will be operating on a business model and profits made will be used to improve schools located in rural areas.

Mtumbuka said: "This particular private school will help give very good primary education holistically. In other words, the parents who send their kids here pay a little bit more money, and we will use that money to improve the schools in rural areas.

"The philosophy of education in the Catholic Church is that you can't have proper functions in a church full of members who have not gone far with education. It can't work, especially in today's world where you want most of the things run by the church to be done by the Christians themselves; which is why we want to educate learners from all over the diocese despite their denomination," he added.

According to Mtumbuka, the school's staff will have the autonomy to make decisions, subject to approval by the school's board, as part of a self-sustaining management approach.

On her part, Director of Education Services for Karonga District Council, Mercy Mayuni, commended Karonga Diocese for opening the school, saying it has complemented government's efforts in delivering quality education.

"This resonates with enabler number five of the Malawi 2063 which stresses development of human capital. In order for our country to be self-reliant, we need to educate learners from all corners of the country," said Mayuni.

Headteacher for St Denis Catholic Primary School, Eunice Ndhlovu, promised to nurture learners' spiritual growth and help them become productive citizens who will contribute positively to Malawi's development.

During the launch of the school, Bishop Mtumbuka also commissioned two priests who will be heading to South Africa to launch the Ad Gentes Missionaries of St. John Paul II.

By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, May 1, Mana: District Trainers of Trainers (DTTs) from Dowa District Council have on Wednesday undergone an orientation on Case Management (CM) process, under the Social Cash Transfer Program (SCTP) to improve efficiency in case management under the program.

The Training, which also included members of the District Social Support Committee (DSSC) aimed at equipping the team with knowledge on how to handle various challenges or complaints that could arise under the SCTP.

Speaking during the orientation, Natasha Mtika, Chief Social Welfare Officer from Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare said the orientation was crucial in empowering the team with case management knowledge and skills.

"In the course of implementation, there are some issues which may arise such as updates, suspensions, claims, change and replacement of household heads, complaints amongst others.

"So the training aimed at orienting the DDTs and DSSC on some of these issues, especially how they may handle these in adherence to SCTP protocols," said Mtika.

Some of the topics tackled during the training, which took place at Dowa Council Lodge conference hall, included Roles of Case Management stakeholders, Categories and Reporting Channels, and Case Management Protocols.

Gift Kambadya, Principle Social Welfare Officer for Dowa asked the DTTs to ensure they understand the Case Management protocols for the benefit of the participants.

"The orientation was important as it will help us in serving the participants better. After this, the DDTs will go into the communities and train local structures there on the same. So we are assured that the knowledge and skills acquired today will help in the implementation of SCTP in Dowa," said Kambadya.

He then urged the DSSC to continue supporting the program in terms of supervision and other activities.

In Dowa, the SCTP previously had 17,400 participants but the district has now targeted 19,043.

By Zenak Matekenya

Dedza, May 1, Mana: Dedza District Council Chief Agriculture Officer, Matilda Mtambo has expressed the council’s commitment to support Civil Society Agriculture Network’s (CISANET) project called Combating Corruption in the Affordable Input (AIP) Program.

She was speaking following CISANET’s presentation of the project to Dedza District Executive Committee on Wednesday.

“It is interesting to have a project by CISANET which is meant to end corruption in AIP. We are committed to work with them because we are one of the key stakeholders and as a council we strive to achieve the same goal.

“We are ready to provide information that they will need. Be it information for beneficiaries, our roles, stakeholders we are working with or any other information,” she said.

Civil Society Agriculture Network Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Edwin Munthali said the project aims to bring to light corruption and any other malpractices on AIP.

He said the AIP gets a bigger chunk of funding in the Ministry of Agriculture but fails to produce desired results.

He decried poor harvest among beneficiary farming households associated with delayed delivery of inputs, missing identification, women getting abused and contractors’ failure to meet inputs supply contracts.

“We would like to understand the cause of all these. Any malpractices will be discussed at district and national level for a possible solution,” he said.

He mentioned the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Malawi Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture among key stakeholders.

He added that the project will work with the media to expose wrong doings and encourage communities to take to task duty bearers to achieve efficiency in the AIP implementation to promote food security.

By Bazilio Chingoli

Ntcheu, April 30, Mana: Fourteen farmers from Ziipilana village in Traditional Authority Phambala in Ntcheu district have each received five goats under the pass-on program.

The initiative is part of the community livelihoods support program under the AREECA project of land and forest restoration, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Speaking during the ceremony on Wednesday, Ntcheu District Animal Health and Livestock Development Officer, Getrude Kanjere, urged farmers to abandon malpractices such as charcoal burning and venture into livestock farming.

"Livestock such as goats and chickens can easily elevate our livelihoods because we can sell them for money, have meat for our health, and harvest manure for our farm fields to have bumper yields," Kanjere said.

Kanjere advised the second beneficiaries of the goat pass-on program to take good care of the goats they received, so that they can also give other farmers who have no livestock in the future.

David Simon, a lead farmer of Chimwankhuku Farmer Field School, commended FAO for the support.

"The goats we received from this program have indeed transformed our lives. We can make organic fertilizer from manure we get from these goats." He said

Halima Austin, one of the second beneficiaries of the livestock pass-on program, echoed Simon's sentiments, saying the support will enable them to pay school fees for their children and provide food for their families.

As part of efforts to restore 5,000 hectares of land and forest around the Mpira catchment area, FAO distributed goats and chickens to farmers to provide them with a sustainable livelihood and discourage encroachment into reserved land.